MARCONI WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY c1919 LIFEBOAT SPARK TRANSMITTER Type 241C

[Phil]

Boy, you guys do things big time. My spark transmitter was a 6V buzzer with a morse key, connected to earth (I learned that from Marconi) and my 60 ft loft aerial. It never occurred to me to incorporate a tuned circuit as an added complication. I could monitor it throughout the long wave band. And medium wave. And short wave - from 180 metres to 10 metres. I had been playing for an hour when my Mum knocked on the door and asked if I might have been doing any "experiments" that might cause interference on the TV - VHF and UHF.

I lived in fear for several weeks waiting for the authorities to knock on the door and haul me off to prison (I was about nine years old).

I'm still a little nervous. They have long memories.

Phil M1GWZ

PS. Once you have read this confession, please eat it.



On 4 Nov 2014, at 15:39, <lstoskopf at cox.net> <lstoskopf at cox.net> wrote:

> Ain't science fun!  And most of us survived.
> 
> N0UU
> 
> ---- Mike O'Dell <mo at ccr.org> wrote: 
>> 
>> my episode as a menace to the ionosphere involved a very large
>> Tesla coil powered by a 15kv neon sign transformer, spark gap,
>> and window-pane capacitor. (Yes, Popular Electronics)
>> 
>> oh yes, a 200 foot long-wire antenna connected to the HV terminal.
>> 
>> the St. Elmo's fire was quite impressive at night. I played with it
>> for about half an hour when the phone in the house rang. My mom said
>> it was a ham friend from across town. He wanted to know if I was
>> "doing anything". I asked why he was asking. He said that nobody
>> with an antenna could get squat, and it was even getting into the
>> CATV plant. He strongly suggested I stop whatever I was not doing
>> IMMEDIATELY and NOT DO IT AGAIN. Which I complied with.
>> 
>> 	    -mo
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> 
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